


I Would Know You (Until The End Of Time)

by checkerboardom



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol Is Not A Proper Coping Mechanism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-06 14:59:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5421380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/checkerboardom/pseuds/checkerboardom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not exactly a surprise when Eobard returns with a smug smile and a bounce in his step. Because isn't that always how it happens in the comics? The villain always manages to come back and cause trouble for the heroes, only to be defeated again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It's not exactly a surprise when Eobard returns with a smug smile and a bounce in his step. Because isn't that always how it happens in the comics? The villain always manages to come back and cause trouble for the heroes, only to be defeated again.

And the cycle repeats.

What is a surprise is the kiss that Eobard pulls him into once he's alone. He catches his eyes before he does, gaze searching for something in Cisco's expression and when he finds it he leans in and presses a kiss, then two and three in quick succession against his lips. It's achingly familiar, this side of not-Harrison, to what he had before and he can't help but lean into it.

"Cisco," Harri- Eobard says, soft and near desperate as he presses his lips to the corner of his mouth, his cheek, his jawline and down further to the right side of his neck. "Cisco, Cisco."

He's ticklish there and Eobard knows it. He had trained him long ago not to flinch away, lavishing attention to the sensitive skin there with the sting of soft bites and the brush of fingertips over his pulse point. It causes a full body shiver now instead of the instinctual recoil of a fight or flight response that it used to and he can feel Eobard's smile against his skin.

"I missed you, my clever boy." Eobard tells the hollow of his throat and it's like a switch is flipped.

"No," He pulls back and shakes his head. "I cant. You're not-"

"Wells?" Eobard doesn't laugh at him, not out loud at least, but there's the gleam of it in his eyes. "I never was, not truly, but that doesn't changed the fact that I know you."

He says it with such certainty, like it's a known fact of the universe instead of the reflection of a lie floating in the air between them. The question is, is it really that much of a lie? There was a time when Cisco thought he knew Wells too. Back before Joe started looking further into Nora Allen's murder, back when things between them were a lot more simple.

"I know you Cisco." Eobard repeats, voice firm as he brushes the hair from his face. His hand stays there for a moment then migrates back and down so that he can wrap his fingers in his hair. He's careful about it, fingers collecting every strand with equal attention. When he tugs, there's no pain, just simple pressure that Cisco leans into without really meaning to.

Eobard smiles. "There you are." He breathes and Cisco swallows the soft noise that wants to rise in his throat.

When Eobard kisses him this time, it's less simple. There's a question in the way he parts his lips, an apology in how he waits for Cisco to respond before he seeks out his tongue, and a promise in the way he leans into it.

The hand not holding his hair is firm on his side, pulling their hips as flush as possible despite the height difference. When Eobard pulls away slightly for breath, Cisco rises up on his toes like he always has and that hand moves around his waist.

"This is a really bad idea." Cisco says and Eobard hums.

"By your standards or by someone else's?" He replies and Cisco sighs, focusing on the metal snap-button on Eobard's collar so he wont have to meet his eyes.

"Both. Maybe." He steps back and Eobard lets him. "I'm helping Barry. I'm finally doing something good with my powers instead of just bottling them up and thinking I'm crazy."

"You helped Barry before." Eobard points out and Cisco blows out a frustrated breath.

"Cisco, Cait and I-" Barry cuts himself off as he comes in the room and sees Cisco standing alone in his workroom with a breeze blowing his hair into his face and his clothes a mess. "You okay...?"

"Yeah," Cisco's voice is too cheerful and his smile feels tight, but Barry doesn't seem to notice since he's busy looking for the source of the breeze. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was just practicing my powers..."

"The Vibe hands thing?" Barry wiggles his fingers and Cisco's smile becomes a little more genuine.

"I can't get the gloves to work right." He waves a hand toward where the Vibe gloves are lying on the table as Barry throws an arm around his shoulders.

"Well how about you take a break and come to Jitters with Cait and I?" He breaks out into a grin. "I'll buy you a Flash."

"You know one day I'm going to have a drink named after me too." Cisco points out and Barry laughs.

"Oh really?" He asks as they join Caitlin in the hall and she loops an arm through Cisco's with a smile.

"Oh really, what?" She chimes in and Barry starts walking backwards so that he can face them while he talks.

"Cisco's going to get a drink at Jitters." The speedster tells her and Cisco bites back a smile in favor of scowling at his friend.

"The Vibe." Caitlin makes a noise of consideration. "It could be iced."

Cisco makes a face at her. "I am not having an iced coffee named after me. Maybe an expresso. Or a mocha.

"Both of which won't taste half as good as mine." Barry adds and Cisco doesn't bother telling him that he's about to run into the elevator doors.

...

When Cisco makes it back to his apartment that night, there's way too much caffeine in his system and a light shining in his kitchen that he knows he didn't leave on. He may be an engineer, but he doesn't make enough money working for the CCPD to waste electricity.

"Hello?" He calls as he sits his satchel on the little old table by the door. He fishes his phone out, finger hovering over the app that'll call Barry in case he is actually getting robbed.

"The lack of actual food in your refrigerator is worrying." Eobard says once he rounds the corner into the kitchenette. His head's halfway into the shelves as he scrounges around for something to eat that's not a condiment and Cisco almost calls Barry anyway.

There's something to say about his life that he finds more comfort in a time traveling murderer than he does a robber, but he'll think about that later.

"How did you get in here?" He asks as Eobard makes a triumphant noise and emerges with the foil wrapped plate of his Tia Dolores' tamales. "Don't eat that."

Eobard puts it back and grabs the leftover carton of Chinese food instead. "You still leave the key over the door." He says as he shoves the whole thing into the microwave after checking for silverware and starts it.

"So you didn't... phase through the door or anything?" Cisco asks, just to clarify and his ex-boss (lover, boyfriend, partner) smiles.

They stay like that for a long moment, watching each other as the microwave droans in the background and the smell of too-oily chow mein fills the tiny space that he's dubbed his kitchen. Cisco breaks the silence with a sigh and runs his hands through his hair.

"This is really weird." He groans and there are two quick steps before familiar fingers intertwine with his own, loosening his grip on his hair as Eobard presses a kiss to his crown.

"It doesn't need to be." He says, soft and reassuring and the tension in Cisco's muscles melts away a little. "There you go."

And it's so easy to fall into the embrace of familiarity he has with this man. Easy to not run when his face is tilted up and he meets clear blue eyes. Easy to reciprocate the kiss that's pressed to his lips and loop his arms around Eobard's shoulders, because he knows this. This was something that he called home for years and for a moment he lets that be true again.

Then the microwave beeps and he pushes the button on his phone.

...

"I'm sorry." Cisco tells him as he paces the cramped 4x6 of his cell. His voice is defeated and when Eobard glances in his direction he wont make eye contact. He'll have to fix that eventually, but for now he'd rather have Cisco's confidence back. He'd spent too much time molding this boy into what he is for him to revert back to how he was when they first met.

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Cisco." He tells him and Cisco may think it's a lie, but it's not. Eobard is an enemy in the eyes of his former team and he wont have Cisco fault himself for choosing Barry and Caitlin over him. "I once told you that choosing between two people that you love would be the hardest decision you'd ever make."

Cisco looks up at him then, eyes wide as he teeters between grief and disgust. "I don't-"

"You do." He interrupts firmly and Cisco's mouth snaps shut. "And just like before, you made the right decision."

Whether or not Cisco believes him, he doesn't say, and instead switches topics to something that he thinks Eobard will want to hear."You want to go back to your time, your home." He's wrong. "I can help you now."

"Now?" Eobard asks and Cisco looks away again. There's something there, something that he won't bring up because it's too painful or because it's finally stopped being so. Perhaps it's both. "We've had this conversation before. In the previous timeline."

It's not a question, but Cisco nods anyway, closing the distance between them just that little bit more as Eobard taps a measured pattern on the glass of his cell. He wishes it wasn't there. "And I killed you."

"Him and a lot of other people." Barry adds from the entrance to the pipeline and Cisco jumps, hands twitching toward his chest in reflex. Eobard doesn't look at Barry, not now, but Caitlin is there too, with a half-hopeful, half-saddened look on her face.

"Dr. Wells?" She asks and she's dressed in her pajamas with a jacket hastily thrown over it and there are fuzzy slippers on her feet. Barry must have gotten her after he'd made sure he was safely locked away.

Eobard dips his head in a bow and smiles. "Hello, Caitlin." He greets her and softens his expression more when she blanches. "I never did get to introduce myself to you better."

"Caitlin, Eobard Thawne." Cisco introduces, waving a hand between them and Eobard can see through the false confidence there, the need to prove that whatever lies between them doesn't effect him anymore. Eobard wonders how far he thinks that lie will get him.

Across from him, Barry makes a noise in the back of his throat and Eobard smiles at him. Barry doesn't smile back and instead turns his attention to Cisco. "Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?" He says, tilting his head toward the door and Cisco shoots one last lingering look in Eobard's direction before following him out of the pipeline.

"Was it all a lie?" Caitlin asks once they're gone, hands folded in front of her in what he knows is nervousness. "Hiring us, teaching us? Saving Ronnie?"

There's pain in her voice, raw and bleeding like an open wound and Eobard remembers that she's lost so much too. While everyone looks out for Barry's feelings and Barry's life, no one has thought to look to the other two. His children in everything but blood. The two brilliant young minds that he had gained the trust of and built a bond with, only to betray for the chance to go home.

"No." They matter too, they always have. "Not all of it."

"But enough? Enough that you could do all of this," She throws a hand out toward the Pipeline, to the place that's caused them all so much greif. "For what? We cared about you, we looked up to you and you threw all of it away. People died, Cisco died-"

"Ronnie died." He interrupts and the utter misery in her expression at that moment is flooring. "I never wanted that. If Barry had listened to me, he would still be alive."

"This is not Barry's fault! None of this would have happened-"

"If I had stayed?" She doesn't nod, but he knows that it was what she had wanted to say. "Could you stay in a world where you had to live with the knowledge that the people you love would die no matter what you do? Where all the relationships you've built over so many years were doomed from the beginning?"

"I do every day." She tells him and holds his gaze for one endless moment, body rigid as ice even as tears flicker in her eyes. "It's a part of being human, knowing that you're going to die. But you don't stop caring about the lives of others just because of it."

There's a beat of silence between them then, as he thinks over her words and she composes herself.

"When we first got Barry, you made a call to one of your colleagues and recommended me for her molecular neurobiology team."

"Dr. Peirson, yes, and you turned her down." He had wanted to chide her for it at the time, had wanted her to see that he was offering an out from the grief that he would inevitably cause her, but she had surprised him and stuck by his side despite the tragedy he had already made of her life.

"Did you offer the same thing to Cisco?" She asks, once again filling the role of the older sibling that Cisco should have had. "Did he get a chance to leave too?"

"He didn't want one." Or really, he hadn't offered one. Eobard had been his home. Presenting him with the option to leave would have resulted in Cisco thinking that he had done something wrong and Eobard hadn't needed that.

"But you thought I would?" There's anger in her tone now, cold and biting despite the fact that she hasn't raised her voice. "That I would be perfectly fine leaving you and Cisco behind?"

He doesn't have a reply for her and she doesn't need him to. She doesn't want one.

"We trusted you, we loved you, and you used us for it. Think about that before you try getting in our good graces again." She pauses with her hand on the control pad, one quick code from sealing him in darkness again. "And stay away from Cisco."

The blast door closes behind her with a hollow thud and Eobard begins to pace.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A couple of conversations that really needed to happen tbh.

If there's anything that Harrison Wells can pride himself on, it's control. Control of his work, control of his thoughts, control of his life. As of now, he's very much not in control and knows that he hasn't been for a while. Not since Zoom arrived on Earth 2 like an insidious nightmare, not since Jesse was taken and his search for her spat him out here.

He doesn't like not being in control. "I thought you said he was erased from existence."

"He was." Ramon snaps and Harry can care less about whatever teenage angst he's going through at the moment.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but that," Wells points to the video feed of Eobard pacing his cell. "Is what normal people would call existing."

"I know!" Cisco lets out a sharp breath and begins pacing as well, unconsciously keeping in time with his former mentor until Barry lays a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"We're working on it, okay?" He gives Cisco a look that Harry can't quite place, but Ramon nods in response and shoves his hands into the depths of his pockets."For now we have to focus on stopping Zoom. We can deal with Thawne afterwards."

"Well, seeing as we're all out of ideas on that front, why don't we just ask him?" He points out and Ramon lets out a startled laugh.

"I'm sorry, but did you just suggest that we ask the murdering psychopath from the future for advice, or..."

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting we do." He really looks at Ramon for the first time since entering the room and notes the tension in the lines of his body, then to Barry and the unconscious barrier that he's put between the two of them with his body. "Why?"

"Maybe because that's a crazy idea?" Cisco points out and Harry takes a step closer to him, then two and three before Barry tenses as well. Interesting.

"Zoom still has my daughter and he'll keep her unless I do something. So maybe, Ramon, I'm willing to try crazy."

Cisco stares up at him, eyes flickering with something that he can't quite place. It reminds him of the look he'd gotten while impersonating Thawne the night they'd defeated Grodd. And just like then, it flickers out of sight as Cisco's lips thin into a grim line.

"Fine." He shakes his head as Caitlin comes in and wraps an arm around his shoulders. "Just don't come running to me when he betrays you like he did the rest of us."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Harry tells him and watches as Cisco leaves the Cortex in quick, annoyed steps. Caitlin shoots a pointed look Barry's way and hurries after him.

"If you have something to say, then say it." Harry tells him and Barry opens his mouth to reply before closing it again. "What did he do?"

"A lot of things." Barry says, voice subdued as he watches the video feed of Thawne. But that's not an answer, or at least, it's not one he can use. If Barry's just now stepping up into a protective role for Cisco concerning their interactions, it has to have been a resent event. "This time it's a little more personal."

"As opposed to killing your mother and shredding your best friend's heart?" Harry shoots back and he could care less about the deer in headlights look he receives. "You never protected him before. Why now?"

"Because now is different, okay?" The speedster snaps and Wells hums, picking up a pen to twirl between his fingers because he needs something to do. After their last fight with Zoom, things have ground to halt, while he still remembers the feeling of his daughter in his arms and the utter horror of having her ripped away from him again. He can't let that happen again.

"Look," Barry stops and runs a frustrated hand through his hair. "This isn't something I can talk about. It's not mine to talk about. So just leave it, okay? We'll get Jesse back, but Eobard Thawne is not the way to do that."

"Fine, I'll find another way." But he's not so sure there is and if Eobard Thawne is anything like Zoom, then he'll be leagues more help to him that a few children ever could be.

For now though, he'll wait until the story comes out on it's own or for an opportunity to question Thawne on his own. And when Barry gives him a relieved smile in response to his words, he smiles back.

 

...

 

He gives it a week.

A week of restless sleep whenever he manages to close his eyes for longer than a few minutes, a week of remembering Jesse's tear stained face and her voice as she pleaded with him to keep her safe.

He hadn't kept his promise to her, hadn't even gotten the chance at trying before she was taken away again and now he has a chance to get her back permanently. It's a opportunity that he doesn't intend to let slip through his fingers like she had.

"You're not going to stay in there forever." He says as he stands before Eobard's cell and his double smiles. He's sitting now, legs folded at the ankle as if he's in the most comfortable spot in the world. "You have a plan."

"I might." He glances over toward the little camera in the top of his cell. "I might not."

Wells crosses his arms, weight shifting as Eobard regards him like a bug on a pin board. "The cameras are disabled."

"I might not." He repeats with a smirk playing across his lips. "You want your daughter back. I want to get out of this cell. The difference between us here is that you actually need my help to get what you want."

"You're waiting on something." Harry replies, because it's better than admitting that the other man is right.

"Or someone. The code is zero three one seven one five, if you're curious."

Wells pauses with his hand hovering over the keypad. "You're not waiting on me." He says and the smile from before becomes predatory, equally blue eyes meeting his own through the thin veil of glass.

"No. I never was," He pauses, chuckling to himself as if he's made a joke. "Unlike your daughter. I suggest you start working on that a little more instead of wasting your time trying to one up me in a conversation."

"And Cisco?" Harry asks, knowing that he's hit the right pressure point when Thawne's grin fades to something a little more fragile. "He's your contingency plan if things go south. That's why you went to him when you came back instead of going after Barry the first chance you got. You wanted him on your side but he pulled the panic chord on you and now you're stuck in here." He smirks and taps in a sequence of numbers. "I took the liberty of changing your overrides for the labs, seeing as any Harrison Wells will do when it comes to fingerprint scanning. You'll get the code when I get information that'll help me get my daughter back."

 

...

 

The victory of his conversation with Thawne is short lived, swept away by another visit from Zoom in the depths of STAR Labs. He meets him by the portal this time and just like before, he keeps his energy gun close.

"Your time is running out, Wells." The speed demon says and Harry can't suppress the shudder that rolls down his spine.

He won't let it show in his voice, not to Zoom. "I'm working on it, but I need more time."

"Then make some." Zoom tells him, voice mocking as he invades his personal space with a crackle of lightning. He smells like the air after lightning strikes, like burnt ozone and rain. "Or you'll never see your daughter again."

"There's something, someone." Zoom tilts his head in interest and Harry clenches his fists. He will not regret this, not if it gets Jesse back. "A friend of the Flash's that can get you what you need, but he hasn't been trained yet."

"Then I suggest you train him fast and make no mistake," A single demonic hand comes up to curl around his throat, lifting him just enough to cut off the air in his lungs. "If you betray me Wells, I will kill your daughter and leave you to suffer here alone."

He's dropped then, hitting the cold ground below with enough force that all the oxygen rushes from his lungs in one painful exhale. When he looks back to the Portal, Zoom is gone and he lays there for a moment as his breathe returns with quick, shuddering inhales.

"So that's what you meant by 'nothing'." A voice says from further in the room and Harry turns his head to see Ramon standing beside the computer station. He's still partially crouched, as if unsure if he should still be hiding and Harry nearly laughs.

Of course he would hear everything.

"I got tired of waiting until the chance to get my daughter back came floating out of thin air." Harry replies and it's not an excuse, not by any means. He knows exactly how damning his actions are, but like most of the decisions he's made in his life that could be considered morally grey, he sees no point in wanting to change things after the fact.

What's done is done and he's never been the kind of person for self-flagellation.

Ramon doesn't see it that way, if the sarcasm in his next words is anything to go by. "No, I totally get it. Betray a whole group of people just as soon as they put their trust in you. We're used to it by now and really, I figured you'd pull something like this eventually."

"No, you figured that another Wells would betray you just like the last one did." He's standing now, the only separation between them being the few feet that he can easily cross. "Unlike him, I never asked for your trust. I never wanted it, but you gave it anyway because a part of you will always want to think better of him than you should."

Ramon looks as if he's been sucker punched, lips parting slightly as he looks up at Harry.

"Don't project your feeling for him onto me." He continues as he closes the distance between them. Cisco doesn't step back in response, body rigid as he holds his ground in whatever show of defiance he can. "I am not Thawne. I will never tell you that I love and I will never look at you the way he does, so stop expecting me to."

He really shouldn't be caught by surprise by the punch that he receives for his words, but he is and it hurts more more because of it.

"You certainly have the Class-A asshole bit down." Ramon snaps back as Harry wipes the blood from his lip. He looks too angry to be properly scared of being hit back, but Harry has no intention of doing so.

He lets him leave and grabs his energy gun from the nearby table. When he reaches the hall beyond, Cisco is walking purposely toward his workroom and so he chooses the Cortex instead and ignores the looks that the rest of the Team gives him.

"Are you... okay?" Caitlin asks as she looks him over with a quick glance and he smiles.

"I may have upset your engineer." He tells her as she quickly gets a damp piece of gauze and hands it over.

"I'll grab something cold for the swelling." She directs her attention to Barry. "Can you check on Cisco?"

"He should be in his workroom." Harry tells him and Allen jobs before taking off at unnecessary speed.

"Why'd he hit you?" Caitlin asks once he's gone and the pressure she puts on the bit of gauze is enough to sting more than it really should. He holds back a wince and meets her eyes with steady innocence.

"I said something I shouldn't have."

She hums and removes the gauze, inspecting the cut on his lip for more bleeding before she hands him a cold compress. "If it was about Eobard then I'm not surprised."

"I take it he's not someone that normally punches people." He responds and her lips quirk into a smile.

"Not unless you deserve it and bringing up anything to do with his relationship with Eobard definitely falls under the category of deserving it."

"They were close?" He knows that they were, but all this time he's never been able to place just exactly what they were to each other. Maybe with the right amount of probing, Caitlin will tell him, maybe not, but it's certainly worth trying.

"You could say that." She looks down for a moment, lower lip caught between her teeth as she seems to think over her next words. "They meant a lot to each other... Before everything that happened."

"Ah," He hums, smiling innocently when her gaze snaps up his face. "I suppose I should apologize then."

"Wait until your lip heals a little." She advises and he nods.

 

...

 

"If your here to tell me that I shouldn't have hit him, then you can leave." Cisco says when Barry speeds into his workroom and the other meta-human smiles. 

"I figured it was bound to happen." He shrugs when Cisco raises an eyebrow at him, smile widening as he lets out a small laugh. "I was just expecting it be Joe before it was you. I thought you guys were getting along."

"That was before--" Cisco lets out a frustrated sound and runs his hands through his hair. "Things changed." 

"Eobard came back, you mean."

"Yeah... That." He doesn't sound convinced though and Barry knows that they've held off on actually having this conversation for too long.

"We can talk about it, if you want." He offers and Cisco snorts.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Cisco says as he rummages through his drawer for a tool. He hasn't looked at him since he came into the room and that mixed with the tightness in his voice lets Barry know that he needs this more than anything.

"Why?" He presses, grabbing the clamp from Cisco hand with one quick movement. "I talk to you about Iris all the time."

"Iris didn't murder my mother or shred your heart into a bunch of little pieces after confessing her love to you." Cisco snaps back and immediately looks as if he regrets his words. "Sorry."

Barry shrugs and hands back the clamp. "No, but that didn't stop me from loving her when she didn't love me back. Love isn't supposed to make sense."

"But I don't love him, not really." Cisco admits as he continues working on the dart gun that Harry left in the work room. "I thought I did, but now..." He sighs. "I don't know."

"Maybe we're not supposed to." Barry tells him and Cisco smiles. "I'm here whenever you want to talk or not talk. Drinking is an option too."

"It has been a while sense we went on a proper date at the bar." Cisco muses and the smile becomes a grin. "I think Caitlin's been working on tester alcohol again, if you really want to."

"Sure. I haven't been properly drunk since my speed kicked in. I kind of miss it." He tells him and it's not really a solution, not a good one at least. But if a night out gives Cisco the opportunity to smile more like he is now, then Barry will take what he can get.

They'll deal with everything else afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this chapter is kind of... bleh. I tried.


	3. Chapter 3

He's dreaming, or Vibing really, if the blue tint of the world around him is anything to go by.

Walking forward, he freezes when an errant noise catches his attention, eyes scanning his surroundings as his heart beats faster. The noise comes again and this time he makes it out as stiffled crying.

"Hello? Jesse...?" He calls, finally placing why everything looks so familiar. He's been here before, he's seen this room before.

"Where are you?" He mutters to himself as he begins walking again.

"In the cage!" Jesse calls and Cisco almost chokes on a panicked breath.

"You can hear me?" He asks as the cage comes into view and he spots Jesse hanging in its center, hands above her head and face streaked with tears.

"Of course I can hear you; you're talking." Jesse replies and Cisco takes a step closer.

"You can't see me."

Jesse rolls her eyes, hands tightening into fists as she tugs at her bonds. The skin of her wrists are raw and chafing and Cisco winces in sympathy. "You're out of my line of sight." She cranes her head to the side, looking out the bars of her prison. "Did he grab you too? I've been alone here since he took me from my school, but if you're here too, that has to mean something." She pauses, voice dropping to a hesitant hiss. "Did my dad send you?"

"No," Her face falls. "I'm working with him."

It's not technically a lie and her expression goes that much more hopeful when she hears it. "What's your name?"

"Vibe." He pauses and looks around again. "But my friends call me Cisco."

"It's nice to meet you, Cisco." Jesse says and he smiles. "Even if it is in here."

"I'm going to get you out, okay?" He tells her and runs to a nearby table in search for something to open her cage. It's covered in bits and pieces of junk, but none of it's useful. "Is there a key?"

"Do you think I'd still be in here if I knew where a key was?" Jesse calls back and Cisco barely bites back a laugh. "Check the box over--"

The world around him goes bright, lit up by blue lighting that cuts through the tint of his Vibe like a knife. He doesn't need to turn to know that Zoom's arrived, he can feel it in the way his skin tingles, in the ache that drives into his brain like a jackhammer.

"Cisco!" Jesse calls, voice chasing after him as Zoom comes into focus and his world fades to black.

...

He wakes with a yell, the sound building up in his throat as he lunges out of his bed and rushes to the bathroom. He pukes up everything in his stomach, head pounding and hands shaking. He feels shaky, his balance shot, as he braces himself over the toilet. Then he remembers Jesse and his stomach heaves.

When he's done, he rinses his mouth out and tears through his dresser for clothes, throwing on the first outfit he finds and combing his fingers through his hair as he runs down the little hall of his apartment to the living room. His keys are on the table by the door and he barely remembers to grab his shoes on the way out.

The roads are empty at this time of night and he doesn't bother with the speed limit, fingers tapping an urgent beat against the steering wheel as he waits for the lights to switch to green.

STAR Labs is equally quiet, eerie and dark, as he makes his way down the hall leading away from the Cortex. He pauses at the corridor leading to the room where Harry's set up a cot for himself, then goes right.

The Pipeline is still lit up when he punches in the code to open the blast door, but it doesn't open. "What--"

"I changed the security codes." A voice calls from behind him and Cisco nearly gives himself whiplash he turns so fast. It's Harry, tired eyed and rumpled as he makes his way down the ramp and something in his expression makes Cisco's heart jump into his throat.

"What are you doing?" He asks and Cisco takes a step back, eyes tracking over to the screen showing Eobard's cell. Harry follows his gaze and sighs. "Ah, I see. You're letting him out."

"No, I'm--" Cisco stops. He doesn't have to explain himself to Harry. "Why'd you change the codes?"

"I needed information, which he," He looks at the screen again, at the sleeping face of his double. "Wouldn't give me."

"So you put him on lockdown?" Cisco demands and he doesn't know whether to be angry or horrified. "How is he supposed to eat? What if something happens?"

"Like now?" Harry hums, staring him down as he closes the distance between them a little bit more. "I don't need you running to Thawne about my deal with Zoom. And besides, do you honestly think he would help you? That he wouldn't turn on you as soon as he got out of his cage? Men like Thawne, like Zoom, they don't care who they need to step on to get what they want."

"So," Cisco takes a step back into the control panel, feeling his way to the screen so that he can punch in the emergency overrides. "Men like you?"

Harry chuckles at that, hands coming up to perch on his hips as he ducks his head. "Oh, you really do think you're clever Cisco."

"Yeah," He presses the last button and steps through as the blast door opens, flipping the switch to close it again before Harry can follow. "It's been said before."

He turns to face the holding cells of the Pipeline, eyes skimming over the empty ones until he reaches Eobard's.

"I hope you're not going to stand there all night." Eobard calls and Cisco jumps.

"Do you ever sleep?" He jokes, heart still beating too fast, and Thawne smiles.

"I was, yes. The door woke me up." He yawns, eyes flicking up to Cisco's face. "Something on your mind?"

"I..." He pauses, biting his lip as flicker images of his dream rise up. "I had a dream, a Vibe, about Jesse. She could hear me. No one has ever heard me through a Vibe before." 

Eobard makes a noise low in his throat. "You jumped between worlds."

"But that's insane." Cisco insists, because he can't have. He gets dreams and headaches and visions--

"It's not as far off as you'd think. At one point in time, you were able to do so much more." Cisco wants to deny him, wants to be anything other than special for the first time in his life, but Eobard continues before he can object. "You become one of the most powerful metahumans that this earth has ever seen, Cisco, and this development in your abilities is just the beginning."

"But how? You told me that I have a 'great and honorable destiny,' but I'm not--"

"Special?" Eobard cuts him off again. "Unique? Important?"

"A hero!" Cisco snaps. "I'm the guy that sits behind a computer and gets visions of things that I don't want to see. I'm not like Barry or Jax or Dr. Stein or... Ronnie."

"Yet."

"What?"

Eobard rises from his reclined position and taps a finger against the glass of his cell. Cisco steps closer. "You're not like Barry or any of the others. Yet. You haven't had the chance to reach your full potential and you won't until you stop fearing your gift. You're blocking yourself because you don't have control and you're afraid of what that lack of control means."

Cisco begins to ask how to gain that control, then snaps his mouth shut as he realizes what Thawne means. "You want to train me."

Eobard leans against the wall of his cell and gives him a lazy sort of smile. "If you want."

"And if I don't?" Cisco counters and the other man shrugs.

"Then you don't. I wont stop you from choosing your own destiny." He says and Cisco swallows, throat dry and hands tingling as he refrains from clenching them into fists.

"But you won't help me either? You won't tell me anything about my powers until I give you something you want."

"Well, it only seems fair that we both get something out of this." Eobard replies, straightening up until he's towering over Cisco and he's never felt so... small before.

"If  I let you out, if I let you train me, you aren't allowed to hurt Barry or Caitlin or any of the others." He pauses when Eobard chuckles, not quite sure what he finds funny.

"Even my doppelganger?" He asks and for a moment, Cisco marvels at the idea of Eobard punching Harry in the face.

"Even Harry." He says and Thawne's eyes light up with something disturbingly close to mischief. "How about we just set up a general rule of no villainy while you're training me?"

Eobard dips his head in agreement and Cisco's fingers hover over the release button.

"You have my word, Cisco." Thawne finally tells him and Cisco lets out a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding.

"We'll start in the morning. The others don't come in until the afternoon and Harry's bound to sleep sometime." He tells him, dropping his hand back to side as Eobard's face takes on a satisfied sort of expression.

"Tomorrow then." He agrees, tilting his head toward the door of the Pipeline as the entrance lights flicker to green and it opens. "For now, I believe one of your 'team mates' would like a word with you."

Cisco snorts at that. "If Harry ever becomes my team mate, I'll eat my shirt."

...

"What did he say?" Harry asks soon as the Pipeline door closes behind him and Cisco skirts around him to leave the room as quickly as he can. He needs distance and time to think, not an interrogation.

Harry follows him. "What did you tell him? What did he want? What did you see?"

"Who says that I saw anything?"

"I'm supposed to believe that you stormed in here at two in the morning over nothing?" Harry scoffs and Cisco's shoulders go tight at the venom he hears in his words. "No, you saw something. You had another one of your visions and it spooked you."

"And if I did?" Cisco challenges as he stops abruptly and turns to face the other man. Harry nearly runs into him, but manages to stop in time and his eyes are cold as he stares him down. Cisco doesn't care. He's not afraid of Harry, not in the way Wells want him to be. "Why would anything I see be any of your business?"

"Because it might help me stop Zoom, which your team doesn't seem to actually care about doing."

"I'm not sure if you remember this, but Zoom broke Barry's back. Until we can come up with a way to slow him down, we can't risk it. I'm not going to feed you information just so you can relay it to a speed demon set on killing my best friend."

"But you didn't tell the others." Harry observes and there really should be a question in there somewhere.

"That doesn't mean I'm not going to." Cisco points out as he rummages through his drawer for a sucker or a twizzler or something. It's been less than a day and his nerves are already shot. "I had a Vibe about Jesse."

Harry sucks in a sharp breath, lips parting as he stares at Cisco for a seemingly endless moment. "She's alright."

Again, it's not a question, but Cisco nods anyway. "She's scared but... She's okay."

"You were sleeping when you saw her." Harry says, voice thoughtful in a way that makes Cisco's skin crawl.

"Yeah. And...?" Cisco asks, eyeing him warily. Harry rolls his eyes.

"I'm not going to knock you out, Ramon. Relax."

Cisco lets out a short laugh. "Don't get offended that I don't believe you."

"Thawne's going to train you," Harry points out and Cisco opens his mouth to deny it, then closes it again when Harry simply raises an eyebrow at him. "If he trains you, I wont need to." Harry continues as he turns and leaves the room and--

Wait. "What's that supposed to mean?" Cisco calls after him, but Wells doesn't answer.

...

His deal with Eobard is put on hold by another sighting of Zoom. Alarms ring throughout the Labs, echoing from the Cortex as Cisco  runs to the center console. The path of Zoom's streak lights up across the map of the city, toxic and blue as Cisco scrambles for his phone. He pushes the panic button on his phone, vaguely aware of Harry running into the room as his eyes track Zoom's trajectory to...

No.

Barry arrives as he presses call, a hand coming up to run through his hair while he paces. It rings and rings as the breath in his chest grows short, something sinking low in his gut when each tone ends and another begins.

"What happened?" Barry asks, but Cisco ignores him, willing his hands not to shake as he dials again.

"Pick up," He mutters as he pushes call again and crams the phone to his ear as soon as possible. "My family -- pick up pick up pick up -- Zoom. My house. Dante!"

"Cisco?" His brother sounds sleep rumpled and annoyed and, _oh thank god_.

"Donde esta mama? Estas bien?" He asks quickly and his voice shakes on the last word at the pure relief he feels in that moment. He presses the phone to his chest and looks to Barry. "Zoom came back." He rises the phone to his ear again. "Estos es importante, Dante. Necesito, mama y papi a STAR Labs."

"Es el medio de la noche!" Dante complains and for a moment Cisco's vision flickers blue, the image of his mama screaming as Zoom advances on her swimming across his vision in a sickening kaleidoscope.

"I don't care if it's the middle of the night!" He snaps back. Dante lets out a groan.

"If this is some stupid science thing, juro a Dios, Cisco." Dante says amid the rustle of fabric as he gets out of bed and Cisco could care less if he's mad at him, so long as he's safe.

"It's not, te lo premeto." He says, a shiver of relief traveling through him as he hears Dante wake his mom and dad. "Barry, I need--"

There's the sound of shattering glass -- a flicker of blue, Zoom, screaming -- and a cut off cry of pain that sends his heart into his throat and a voice in his ear.

 **"You do not know fear."** Zoom's growl echoes through the phone as Barry speeds out of the room in a storm of lightning. **"They will."**

The line goes dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I regret nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> There might be more of this. I have a thing halfway planned, so who knows?


End file.
